Matsushita Press Release 06/04/04

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., (MEI), best known for its Panasonic brand of consumer electronics and digital communication products, has announced that it will introduce 1GB SD Memory Card. The product launch is scheduled for April in the Japanese market, followed by distribution elsewhere in the world starting in May. The expected price in the market is about Euro 499 in Germany and $499.99 in North America.

About the SD Memory Card
The SD Memory Card is a semiconductor memory card developed based on the four product concepts: large memory capacity, high-speed data transfer rate, postage stamp-size compactness, and copyright protection. The SD Memory Card has proved to match the needs of digital electronic devices, thus becoming the format with the largest share2 in the semiconductor memory card market. At present (as of the end of January 2004), over 2,000 SD Card application products have been introduced globally by more than 150 brands - a figure which is expected to increase even further in the future.

Growing demand for large capacity memory card
Since its release in 1999, the SD Memory Card has been used in various digital devices including digital still cameras (DSCs), digital video cameras, PCs, PDAs and mobile phones. Currently, its major application is storage of still images shot with DSCs. The DSC market has recently seen a rapid progress toward higher resolution, which has increased the demand for large capacity memory cards. In addition, there is a continuing popularisation of functions to manage video images such as MPEG4 and MPEG2 in the digital device sector.

Digital devices that record digital video images on SD Cards for replay have been introduced in the market and Panasonic has already launched DVD recorder and MPEG2 video camera products. Such video images require high capacity memory cards. Furthermore, electronic delivery of large-capacity rich content via broadband connection is expected to increase rapidly in the future. The Panasonic 1GB SD Card not only satisfies such needs for larger capacity, but also provides the high speed necessary to easily record and replay high quality video images.

Advantages of 1GB SD Memory Card
The 1GB SD Memory Card has the capacity to store about 1300 [3-megapixel, Standard mode3] or about 400 [5-megapixel, fine-mode4] still images, about 9 hours5 [MPEG4, Normal mode] or about 40 minutes6 [MPEG2, Normal mode] video images respectively or about 22 hours7 of music.

The high-speed data transfer rate of 10MB/s8 , which has an established reputation with Panasonic Super High Speed model, is inherited. Our proprietary high-density packaging technology has allowed mounting of 8 1-Gbit NAND flash memory chips, which has realised the large capacity and high speed of the product. In line with the capacity increase from megabyte to gigabyte, the card label and the package design have been restyled.

Future expansion of SD Memory Card Application
The capacity increase of memory cards to gigabytes has expanded the possibility of new applications. Possible applications include professional broadcasting equipment, for example, and Panasonic is proposing DVCPRO P2 series9 - next-generation solid-state memory system. For the future, Panasonic aims at further capacity expansion and speeding up for proposing new applications and for the upgrading of digital networks connected with SD Cards.

About Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., best known for its Panasonic brand name, is a worldwide leader in the development and manufacture of electronic products for a wide range of consumer, business, and industrial needs. Based in Osaka, Japan, the Company recorded consolidated sales of US$61.68 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2003. Matsushita’s shares are listed on the Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, New York, Euronext Amsterdam and Frankfurt stock exchanges. For more information, visit the Matsushita website at http://www.panasonic.co.jp/global/top.html
1 A 1GB SD Memory Card utilises a portion of the memory for copy protection and other purposes. Usable capacity is 944MB (MB means 1,048,576 bytes).
2 SD Card Association announced on January 8, 2004 that SD surpassed Compact Flash to become the market leader. For more information, visit the website at http://www.sdcard.org/press.htm
3 Image size: 2048 X 1536
4 Image size: 2560 X 1920
5 12 fps 176 X 144 pixels
6 60 field/s: 30 fps 352 X 480 pixels (with Panasonic SV-AV100)
7 AAC standard mode (96 kbps)
8 The data transfer rate of 10MB/s is a theoretical value and not a guaranteed performance.
The rate may vary depending on the conditions and the host device used.